AstrinSchmidt
2019
I don't think I 'get' this game. The main gameplay loop consists of running to and fro, with zombies serving as speed bumps to whittle down your resources. On normal difficulty, I was always flush with resources, and had a ton of stuff stockpiled for a final gauntlet which never came.
The game picks up around the 2/3 point, where the story progresses and you are introduced to multiple new locales, bosses, and enemy types. This makes a good 4-hour portion in the middle of the game feel like filler — the new enemy types provide a lot more challenge than the weakling zombies populating the police station.
As a last point, to address the elephant in the room: The game did not scare me in the slightest. Playing it in both VR and flatscreen, I never felt any unease, neither in the contextual sense of the game world, nor in the gameplay sense, since I was flush with resources. I admit, I am not the easiest person to frighten, but I really feel like Silent Hill from 1999 is still far, far above this game in terms of fear factor (Silent Hill scared me back when I was 15... maybe I've grown out of it by now).
Overall, this is a rather easy action/adventure game with rather simplistic combat, with massive difficulty spikes on the bosses and specific encounters (not that the difficulty spikes that high, but the baseline difficulty of dealing with the basic zombies is simply nonexistent). Alan Wake II had made me itch for a survival horror game with good gameplay, but I honestly feel like at the end of the day, AWII had better gameplay than this. I might just move on to RE4 or 5 next.
The game picks up around the 2/3 point, where the story progresses and you are introduced to multiple new locales, bosses, and enemy types. This makes a good 4-hour portion in the middle of the game feel like filler — the new enemy types provide a lot more challenge than the weakling zombies populating the police station.
As a last point, to address the elephant in the room: The game did not scare me in the slightest. Playing it in both VR and flatscreen, I never felt any unease, neither in the contextual sense of the game world, nor in the gameplay sense, since I was flush with resources. I admit, I am not the easiest person to frighten, but I really feel like Silent Hill from 1999 is still far, far above this game in terms of fear factor (Silent Hill scared me back when I was 15... maybe I've grown out of it by now).
Overall, this is a rather easy action/adventure game with rather simplistic combat, with massive difficulty spikes on the bosses and specific encounters (not that the difficulty spikes that high, but the baseline difficulty of dealing with the basic zombies is simply nonexistent). Alan Wake II had made me itch for a survival horror game with good gameplay, but I honestly feel like at the end of the day, AWII had better gameplay than this. I might just move on to RE4 or 5 next.
2023
The main thing taking a star off is Alan's sections — they do not really lead anywhere, fittingly, they have obtuse puzzles which boil down to a lot of trial and error, and have little to no variety in gameplay. Alan't campaign bogs the pace down and could have easily been truncated to half the length in my opinion.
The story was fine. The twists were fairly predictable, and I am annoyed by the way Alan narrates things. It gets on my nerves, which causes me to dislike the character, and his story, more. Overall, it was rather interesting and, bar gameplay, well-paced and well-told.
The graphics are very good and the gameplay mechanics, while taking some time to get used to, do lead to some fun moments. The cinematic direction was good, too.
Overall, it is a game with very good presentation and enough substance to not keep you bored, but it did not particularly move me.
The story was fine. The twists were fairly predictable, and I am annoyed by the way Alan narrates things. It gets on my nerves, which causes me to dislike the character, and his story, more. Overall, it was rather interesting and, bar gameplay, well-paced and well-told.
The graphics are very good and the gameplay mechanics, while taking some time to get used to, do lead to some fun moments. The cinematic direction was good, too.
Overall, it is a game with very good presentation and enough substance to not keep you bored, but it did not particularly move me.
2019
To address the elephant in the room: the presentation on display is simply impeccable. Brutalist architecture, lots of extremely well-rendered destructible environments, fancy ray-tracing effects, beautiful colours and lighting with the semi-official HDR patch (highly recommended); the cutscenes are very well directed, featuring some excellently surreal scenes, and the use of colour never fails to be striking. Paying this game for the first time four years after release, it is still an absolute visual treat.
The gameplay is quite engaging, giving the player a small but varied set of tools to use against groups of enemies in the aforementioned destructible environments. It never bored me in my playthrough of the main game + the two add-ons, and the only real complaint I have on this front is that it has a bit of a backwards difficulty curve where the first boss was the hardest fight in the game simply because Jesse barely had any abilities — the shield and the ability to glide are the last abilities you get, and both serve to greatly increase your defensive capabilities and manoeuvrability — the player should have got access to these much earlier IMO.
The worldbuilding is taking clear inspiration from SCP, but I did not mind that at all — Remedy have done the legwork of establishing their own fictional world and intertwining the FBC into it. It is just about as entertaining to read the plethora of documents available in the game as it is to read the SCP wiki.
The main plot is where the game falters in my opinion. It starts off with a strong premise, but is then bogged down with a lot of expository dialogue and meandering around the facility without really moving the plot forward... and just as the rising action really starts and you are heading into the climax, it suddenly ends.The DLCs do not help much, as one is a somewhat brief but interesting look into the potential future of Jesse as a character after the events of the game, and the other is essentially a teaser for Alan Wake II. The main story just suddenly deflates and will possibly be properly resolved in Control II.
I also wish to give a special mention to the soundscape of the game — the combat music provides a steady beat without being grating, and there are some delightfully eerie ambient tracks accompanying the brutalist architecture as you explore the Oldest House. It was entirely inoffensive at its worst, and effective at building an oppressive atmosphere at its best.
Overall, it's hard for me to find reasons not to recommend the game — great tactile response providing satisfying gameplay, enough build/tactical variety to make you consider your upgrades, lots of eye candy, intriguing, if ultimately disappointing main plot, I'd say everyone should give Control a shot. One thing I can say for certain is that itnis an incredibly vast improvement on Alan Wake, and it makes me curious about Quantum Break and how that might compare quality-wise... that, and Alan Wake II. My hopes for Alan Wake II are through the roof after playing this one.
The gameplay is quite engaging, giving the player a small but varied set of tools to use against groups of enemies in the aforementioned destructible environments. It never bored me in my playthrough of the main game + the two add-ons, and the only real complaint I have on this front is that it has a bit of a backwards difficulty curve where the first boss was the hardest fight in the game simply because Jesse barely had any abilities — the shield and the ability to glide are the last abilities you get, and both serve to greatly increase your defensive capabilities and manoeuvrability — the player should have got access to these much earlier IMO.
The worldbuilding is taking clear inspiration from SCP, but I did not mind that at all — Remedy have done the legwork of establishing their own fictional world and intertwining the FBC into it. It is just about as entertaining to read the plethora of documents available in the game as it is to read the SCP wiki.
The main plot is where the game falters in my opinion. It starts off with a strong premise, but is then bogged down with a lot of expository dialogue and meandering around the facility without really moving the plot forward... and just as the rising action really starts and you are heading into the climax, it suddenly ends.The DLCs do not help much, as one is a somewhat brief but interesting look into the potential future of Jesse as a character after the events of the game, and the other is essentially a teaser for Alan Wake II. The main story just suddenly deflates and will possibly be properly resolved in Control II.
I also wish to give a special mention to the soundscape of the game — the combat music provides a steady beat without being grating, and there are some delightfully eerie ambient tracks accompanying the brutalist architecture as you explore the Oldest House. It was entirely inoffensive at its worst, and effective at building an oppressive atmosphere at its best.
Overall, it's hard for me to find reasons not to recommend the game — great tactile response providing satisfying gameplay, enough build/tactical variety to make you consider your upgrades, lots of eye candy, intriguing, if ultimately disappointing main plot, I'd say everyone should give Control a shot. One thing I can say for certain is that itnis an incredibly vast improvement on Alan Wake, and it makes me curious about Quantum Break and how that might compare quality-wise... that, and Alan Wake II. My hopes for Alan Wake II are through the roof after playing this one.
2023
This is damn near a creepypasta game with the implications it seems to provide near the end, and the way it keeps pushing the player into the role of an abuser both seems like projection, given Dybovskiy's past, and also not properly justified by the story. From what I have played, the game essentially has no pay-off. The tamogotchi waiting mechanics are annoying and the gameplay never really progresses, along with the story. I must also point out its lack of reactivity — on multiple occasions, I insisted on going against what the gamr clearly seemed to want and Franz seemed entirely convinced that I had picked the other dialogue option, so the game condescendingly took away my choice entirely. You don't seem to have much say in the story at all, which one would think was the entire point of the game.
It's free and represents the height of Ragnarök's combat (minus the boy button, which only served to cheapen the game anyway), and with a good story to boot. Excellent dialogue writing and voice acting, much like in the base game. Considering this is free, I really have nothing else to say — I would recommend this to everyone who liked the combat system of Ragnarök.
To touch on the story a bit more, it is almost like a meta-narrative where Kratos himself becomes one of those people who thinks that Kratos had no depth to his character before the new games, and has to come to terms with the fact that even the older GoW games had narrative depth. It's quite cathartic to see considering how the general outlook on the Greek games has shifted since the release of God of Norse, as someone who actually went back and beat GoW 1 - 3 after playing GoW 2018 and viewed the games through knowing eyes.
To touch on the story a bit more, it is almost like a meta-narrative where Kratos himself becomes one of those people who thinks that Kratos had no depth to his character before the new games, and has to come to terms with the fact that even the older GoW games had narrative depth. It's quite cathartic to see considering how the general outlook on the Greek games has shifted since the release of God of Norse, as someone who actually went back and beat GoW 1 - 3 after playing GoW 2018 and viewed the games through knowing eyes.
It's honestly on par with Serious Sam: TFE in how its incredible mundanity brings forth thoughts of existential dread and utter helplessness as I play it. The state of being bored not in a passive way, but actively wishing to break out of the situation which grinds against your brain in a horrible way. Fortunately, this is just a video game, so I turned it off when I realised that I could not bear to get through to the end.
Objectively speaking, I suppose it's fine. Fine shooting, okay enemy design. However, the tedium of navigating these open, fog-ridden levels; the tedium of facing the same few enemy types over and over; the frustration of falling into traps, forcing a level restart due to a cheap death — it all confounds into an experience which really hurts me in a way in which it might not ever be able to hurt anyone else.
Objectively speaking, I suppose it's fine. Fine shooting, okay enemy design. However, the tedium of navigating these open, fog-ridden levels; the tedium of facing the same few enemy types over and over; the frustration of falling into traps, forcing a level restart due to a cheap death — it all confounds into an experience which really hurts me in a way in which it might not ever be able to hurt anyone else.
2020
The game mostly revolves around walking across large, sparsely-populated low-poly landscapes. The player is given little to no direction, and none of the NPCs are terribly helpful, mostly delivering rather vague and vaguely poetic dialogue. The main meat of the game involves finding phrases written on walls in hidden places around the maps based on clues — a task which clearly requires some familiarity with the game's locales. I did not have the patience to complete this rather daunting and utterly uninteresting task, so I never found all of the connections between the maps, and hence, all of the phrased required to progress.
2022
The atmosphere is great and exploration is rewarding, but the gameplay never gets particularly interesting and the endings are just disappointing — particularly the hard-to-get ones, due to the effort involved in obtaining them.
Overall, there is not much to say — it's an atmospheric romp with a bunch of intertextual reference, with decent retro-style graphics and a passable soundtrack with occasional highlights.
Overall, there is not much to say — it's an atmospheric romp with a bunch of intertextual reference, with decent retro-style graphics and a passable soundtrack with occasional highlights.
It's really boring. Lots of walky-talky sections. The quest design is hilariously restrictive, and I don't like the gunplay (the main quest often turns into a shooting gallery).
I am currently on Chapter 3, and I do not like any of the characters. The story is not engaging at all, and the game just does not feel interactive. The RPG mechanics feel tacked-on and can pretty muxh be completely ignored, except for the Honour system. I dislike karma systems which punish you even if there were no witnesses.
Overall, I do not see the appeal. I'll probabky keep playing, but after roughly 30 hours, the game just feels endless and really boring. It's like they made Kingdom Come: Deliverance without any of the fun.
The reason this gets 3 stars is because the production quality is top-notch, and the game does trudge along at a steady pace. It's all right if you want to turn your brain off.
I am currently on Chapter 3, and I do not like any of the characters. The story is not engaging at all, and the game just does not feel interactive. The RPG mechanics feel tacked-on and can pretty muxh be completely ignored, except for the Honour system. I dislike karma systems which punish you even if there were no witnesses.
Overall, I do not see the appeal. I'll probabky keep playing, but after roughly 30 hours, the game just feels endless and really boring. It's like they made Kingdom Come: Deliverance without any of the fun.
The reason this gets 3 stars is because the production quality is top-notch, and the game does trudge along at a steady pace. It's all right if you want to turn your brain off.
2019
Boring gameplay broken up by much more boring cutscenes... I guess I just don't get it. I've beaten the mission where you have to steal the thing from the enemy camp, and the game has really not gripped me. I am dreading the idea of doing more stranding just to see if there is anything to the story.
2022
Bandits camping the dumps entrance... The game can be satisfying, if repetitive, but it all feels like it leads nowhere. In reality, it leads to that stupid run-back to the dumps, where even if you make it past the campers, there are no spawnpoints anywhere in that location, so you have to run for 10 minutes just to get (shot) there. The gameplay loop gets stale quickly, and there isn't anything like good AI to carry the game, as would be the case with STALKER.
2018
The performance is rubbish, where the i5-9600k cannot run this game at "High" settings, since it is optimised horribly. Not that "High" settings don't look bad, but still better than the "Low" settings I had to contend with.
Gameplay-wise , it's actually pretty great — you sneak around guards and cameras, you can stack boxes and use your car to jump fences (which is definitely intended). There is one particular property which offers a fairly fun sneaking experience, which can be completely skipped by jumping over a fence with your car, going inside, looting, up to the second-floor balcony, and back over the fence and out of the area.
The different gadgets you get are pretty fun, if barebones — the window knife and the hacker laptop in particular change up the gameplay in major ways — and there is generally enough variety to keep things fresh across the game's twelve-hour runtime.
Overall, the game sucks on the technical side, with the sound propagation system being very unrealistic and jank all around; and it can be rather simplistic. However, I would say that I enjoyed the game quite a lot for what it was. There's nothing quite like tosding an $8000 3D-printer over a fence onto my car and using janky parkour to jump the fence and escape the property.
Gameplay-wise , it's actually pretty great — you sneak around guards and cameras, you can stack boxes and use your car to jump fences (which is definitely intended). There is one particular property which offers a fairly fun sneaking experience, which can be completely skipped by jumping over a fence with your car, going inside, looting, up to the second-floor balcony, and back over the fence and out of the area.
The different gadgets you get are pretty fun, if barebones — the window knife and the hacker laptop in particular change up the gameplay in major ways — and there is generally enough variety to keep things fresh across the game's twelve-hour runtime.
Overall, the game sucks on the technical side, with the sound propagation system being very unrealistic and jank all around; and it can be rather simplistic. However, I would say that I enjoyed the game quite a lot for what it was. There's nothing quite like tosding an $8000 3D-printer over a fence onto my car and using janky parkour to jump the fence and escape the property.
2023
The game is repetitive, and there is no reason to sneak around when you can instantly knock people out by slamming doors in their faces, and hack security systems to shoot everyone for you. When they are unconscious, you are free to take their fingerprints, which will let you solve most crimes pretty much immediately.
Due to being an Early Access title, the game can feel rather barebones and repetitive, and with the tactics listed above, it feels as though I have optimised the fun out of the game.
On another note, the side cases just feel unfair — someone with green eyes qnd blood type O+ lives in this 16-storey building, and I have to smash all of their windows? By the time I am done combing through sixteen floors, I shall have stolen thousands of crowns' worth of loot, doing my best Garrett impression. This game honestly feels more fun as a thief simulator than a detective simulator...
Due to being an Early Access title, the game can feel rather barebones and repetitive, and with the tactics listed above, it feels as though I have optimised the fun out of the game.
On another note, the side cases just feel unfair — someone with green eyes qnd blood type O+ lives in this 16-storey building, and I have to smash all of their windows? By the time I am done combing through sixteen floors, I shall have stolen thousands of crowns' worth of loot, doing my best Garrett impression. This game honestly feels more fun as a thief simulator than a detective simulator...
This might honestly be the most disturbing game I have ever played.
2022
The game is free to a fault, where obstacles act less like obstacles and more like suggestions on what you might not want to do for most of the game — you can pretty much trivialise every level by possessing an enemy, and running through with invisibility when needed.
The gameplay and world-building are top-notch im-sim stuff, but I found that the pacing of the game dragged around halfway through, and it only really got better when I further upgraded my character to completely trivialise the actual challenges, so the game became more about exploring the station at my own pace than actively struggling to make it through.
Overall, this game feels more like an exploration sandbox than most other immersive simulators, making me disengage at times, but it really has no major flaws in my mind, and I would recommend it to anyone who would find this intriguing based on its Steam page.
The gameplay and world-building are top-notch im-sim stuff, but I found that the pacing of the game dragged around halfway through, and it only really got better when I further upgraded my character to completely trivialise the actual challenges, so the game became more about exploring the station at my own pace than actively struggling to make it through.
Overall, this game feels more like an exploration sandbox than most other immersive simulators, making me disengage at times, but it really has no major flaws in my mind, and I would recommend it to anyone who would find this intriguing based on its Steam page.